Homemade Birthday Party

The castle- popular as always. Also- drinks station off to the left

In my post about painting our play-castle (play-houses are so last year)  you may have noticed a rather sad-looking toadstool in the background.  That’s a leftover from Bella’s 4^th birthday party earlier in the year. Rather than chuck them out directly, I thought we’d keep them around for a week until they naturally fell apart and needed chucking.  Like the castle, they have hung on with a tenacity that astounds me.  So I thought they deserved a mention on the blog along with a couple of other things that I made for her party.

Little girls playing in a garden. Is there anything sweeter?

The theme for the party was “bottom of the garden”. I’ve wanted to do this theme for years but for her second birthday Bella wanted Dora and for her 3^rd birthday I was 8mths, 1week pregnant in mercurial weather with a tiny house and a building site for a yard so we did a party at The Pickled Fairy in Fremantle (HIGHLY recommend!) .

I made the invitations in Photoscape and printed at BigW for 10c per invite.

 

I made papier mache toadstools which sat on top of bamboo stakes I had jammed into the lawn. For the stalks of the toadstools I used the rolls that fabric comes on- my local Spotlight ladies let me have some of the empty ones and I cut them down to size.

Lining up for beanbag toss (through a flower that I made)

We also had garden gnomes and flower windmills but I just bought them all from the discount store.

When guests arrived they went outside and decorated a plant pot with sequins, fabric flowers, wooden ladybug shapes,  plastic spiders etc.  Once everyone had arrived and made their pot we played pass the parcel then  a beanbag toss game that I made.  I made a goodie bag for each guest and they put all their prizes in there as the day progressed.

Prizes- this was just one basket. There were coloured pencils, toy lizards and snakes, flower bracelets etc

I also had a sandpit with little ‘treasures’ buried in It and the kids loved digging and reburying them over and over again.

It's a bit dark but that's the sandpit behind the giant flower 

Because the party was in the afternoon I didn’t provide lunch, we had a drinks station with lots of cold juice and water and I made ‘frogs in a pond’ (freddo frogs in a clear plastic cup of blue and green jelly) then cake. The cake was a bit wonky and for some reason I put the flowers up in the mid air instead of on the grass- I blame tiredness or something. For the record, I had just returned to full time work 3 weeks before this party, I had an 11mth old and I was running my small business and trying to get out a massive (44 metre) custom bunting order. Madness. Pure madness. Anyway, Bella loved the cake. And it tasted delicious (Betty Crocker cake mix = pure win. It never fails).

And then the kids played on bikes, in the castle, with assorted toys. My garden was full of colour and sunshine and giggles and squeals. It was such a lovely blissed-out afternoon.

When guests were ready to leave, they took their goody bag and also their pot which I filled with potting mix, one of the windmill flowers and a packet of seeds to which I had attached a little thankyou message and instructions.

 

I think the whole party cost about $150, maybe less, for about 15 children and 20 adults. And I think it was a great success! =o) 

Bella and her gorgeous friend Madelyn.

Laura xx